


Survive

by GrumpyQueer



Category: The Walking Dead (TV), The Walking Dead Series - Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - The Walking Dead Fusion, Badass Reader, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Death, Nonbinary Character, Other, Past Abuse, Protective Daryl Dixon, Reader-Insert, Swearing, The Walking Dead Freeform, The Walking Dead References, Walkers (Walking Dead)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:07:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29827491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyQueer/pseuds/GrumpyQueer
Summary: You walk the world alone. Killing walkers and escaping your negative past. You stumble across 2 strangers in your childhood bedroom scrounging the place. Who are they? Can you trust them? But more importantly...Can you survive?A bit of freeform Walking Dead, with some plot from the show. Just got inspired really.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon & You, Daryl Dixon/You
Kudos: 10





	Survive

The world had gone to shit.

The dead had risen and the only thing on your mind was survival. Kill the dead, fear the living. But you had no time for fear. You had to fight to survive.

You were on your own when the fall of the world happened. No friends, no family. No one. Sure you had family but they never felt like family. You had a rough past. An abusive alcoholic father and a mother too wrapped up in her own world to look after you. You had to grow up before you were ready. Coming out didn’t help. But you survived. _Barely_.

Walking through the streets of your home town. The houses bare and rotting. Abandoned. The walkers groaning and bumbling around. Faces of which you knew. You had grown numb to the state of the world. It was shit before, just had a lil bit more shit thrown in. You took your knife out of its holster strapped to your thigh, ready to quietly take down the walkers. You don’t know why you came back here, you just prayed your home still had supplies. Crouching behind a rusted car you peeked your head to survey the area. _3 to the right of you and 2 to the left_. You could do that. After slowly shuffling to the left you leapt out of your position and sunk your knife into the walkers skull. The other turning to the commotion, suddenly interested at the potential snack. The walker sunk to the ground with a thud as you turned quickly to sink the knife into the other walker. A deafening squelch as you did so. As he dropped to the ground you turned to survey your surroundings. You noticed that there was a few walkers already taken out laying on the concrete, so you had to stay alert. The other 3 had wondered off and weren’t a definite danger, so you crouched down once more and scurried to your old house.

_The place that haunted you to this day._

You knew there was medical supplies and gear to help you fish from the days you used to go camping. You slowly pushed open the door and tiptoed into the hallway. You had no clue if your ‘family’ were still alive, but by the state of the door, you doubted it. After clearing the kitchen you scurried into the living room. There was a horrible smell that you could only describe as death, hanging in the air. Holding your shirt against your nose and mouth, you stepped in. What you saw made you freeze in your path. Your mothers corpse, blood dried and splattered on the walls, obvious she couldn’t deal with the state of the world. You closed your eyes and turned out of the room. You couldn’t be upset, you never knew the woman. But as you stepped back into the hall, you heard the usual creaking of the floorboards upstairs. You froze. Either there’s walkers or someone here. Readying your knife you crept up the steps. Knowing where the creakiest ones were and avoiding them as you ascended. With your back to the wall, you shimmied yourself to stand next to the doorway to your room. You could hear people talking as they poked around your stuff. Anger flooded your veins as you turned the corner and readied to attack. “Who the fuck are you?” You shouted as a rugged man with a crossbow aimed directly at you, the other wearing a baseball cap, raising a pistol back at you. “The fuck are _you_?” He quipped back, eyes narrowed watching you down the site of his crossbow. You scoffed. “This is my house.” You spat, not liking the words coming from your mouth, gesturing to the man beside him. “And that’s my gear.” You growled. The man with the crossbow scoffed, “This could be anyone’s house, ya expect me to believe that?” his voice low, gravelly but you found a southern twang to it. You mentally shook your head, _focus_. “Then I’ll tell you this. This room has exactly 2 Iron Maiden posters, pictures of quotes and a whole bunch of metal CDs.” You glared, watching the other man look around to check, him whispering “She isn’t wrong.” You growled “They/them asshole.” They looked at each other, Crossbow still focusing on you “So what, you’ve been here before, I don’ see you makin yourself at home.” Crossbow growled back, taking a step forward. You laughed, “I may not call this my home but I lived here. Left when my father started..” You stopped yourself, and you could see the look on crossbows face frown in confusion. Why were you gonna tell these strangers that?? “It doesn’t matter. But I’m sure we could work something out.” You said placing your knife in its holster and raising your hands in surrender. Crossbow narrowed his eyes once more, the man next to him placing his hand on crossbows arm. He stayed there for a minute, before lowering it. You breathed a sigh of relief. “Cool.” You said walking into the room, going to the other side of your old bed and grabbing a box filled with tackle gear for fishing. Placing it next to you, in case the guys tried to grab it from you. Shimming under to grab your spare 1 man tent that you forgot you had. Pulling it out you dusted it off and spluttered at the dust that emitted from it. Crossbow scoffed, causing you to roll your eyes. These guys seemed decent enough, well they hadn’t killed you yet so that was a good enough sign. “Are you on your own?” The guy in the hat questioned, stopping his rummaging, not knowing what to do with himself now. You smiled to yourself. “Yep, just me, you guys have been the first real people I’ve seen in a long time.” You looked over to them both, them sharing a look with each other. “Where ya been stayin?” Crossbow muttered, glancing at the walls. You scoffed, placing the boxes in your bag “where haven’t I been staying, been stayin wherever I can, never in the same place twice, never been safe enough.” You stated with a shrug, finishing strapping up your bag, “Come on, I know where we can get some weapons and food.” You said flicking your head for them to follow you. You didn’t see the look they shared with each other as you took off down the stairs. The sound of their foot steps following you, indicated they trusted you enough. You grabbed your knife once more, creeping to the back of the house and out the back door, crouching low. After scanning the garden for any sign of walkers, you stood again but moved slowly into the green, heading to the gate slowly to head to the forest behind your house. You glanced over your shoulder to find Crossbow and the hatted man with their weapons aimed ready to follow you. Crossbow nodded to you, ready for you to open the gate. You nodded back, pulling the latch and slowly walking through.

The crunch of the forest floor beneath your boots brings you back to the silence through the town. It’s eerie but peaceful. The crunch and snaps of twigs from the footsteps behind you also reminded you you weren’t alone. You retraced your steps to the little shed that you had made against a tree. It was your safe place, your place no one knew about. It had food, water and weapons that you had found and kept over the years. You just prayed to god that the place wasn’t looted already.

You were all walking for about 10 minutes following your memory, until Crossbow grabbed your shoulder, turning you to face him, his weapon scarily close to your head. “The fuck you leadin us?” His whispered harshly. You sighed, _obviously they were starting to have doubts, they don’t know you_. “I made a safe place in my childhood, it’s where I used to stay to be safe.” You whispered, hoping he understood, looking at him dead in the eyes. His expression softened at the realisation but switched straight back to the cold look, it was so quick if you blinked you would’ve missed it. You nodded as he nodded back to and you continued your walk to your little safe space. You remembered the path like the back of your hand, despite all the years you hadn’t been here. Finally you came across the black metal sheets bolted to the side of an old tree. You smiled as you jogged up to it, scanning your surroundings for any walkers. When you felt it was safe enough, you walked up to the ‘door’ with a padlock. You thought for a second, a flash of panic of not remembering the code, but your hands had moved quicker than your brain and unlocked it, placing the padlock into your pocket. The sound of creaking metal filled your ears, cringing at the sound. You can’t believe it’s still standing and hadn’t been ransacked yet, but here it is. You smiled to yourself, seeing your LGBT flag still on the wall, random drawings and paint printed all across the walls, an old cassette player with some tapes still stacked next to it. You sat down on the make shift bed as the guy with the hat stayed out front to keep watch. Crossbow came in and looked around, standing by the door watching you sit on the bed and look around for a moment. He didn’t know what to think. One moment you were a threat, then the next you were taking 2 strangers to your safe place. It didn’t make sense to him. He kept his guard up in case you tried something, it just didn’t sit right with him.

You sighed dreamily, remembering this place. This was your home. Smiling, you stood opening the drawers that you kept bandages and first aid supplies. You threw them on the bed to put in your bag. Opening the next one you saw your diary. You froze, knowing what emotions and events happened in that book. Things that you would rather forget. Crossbow was looking around the small hut, his eyes lingering on a quote on the wall _‘your scars do not define you’_ , now it’s clear to him that you’ve been through similar shit. He heard you had stopped moving as he turned his gaze back to you, obviously saw you tense up as he muttered “ya alright?” You had shook yourself out of that state nodding lightly at him and shutting that draw. You searched the rest of the draws finding canned foods that thank god still in date and bottles of water. After throwing those on the bed, you crouched under to drag out a box that you had found in the woods years ago. You didn’t know what made you grab the box but you thanked past you that you did. Who knew you would need them? After opening the box, a few hand guns and hunting knives where pilled in. Reaching for the knives you asked “You lads got knives?” Crossbow nodded but the guy in the hat shook his head. You stood and placed one of the knives on the drawers saying “here.” You said then crouching back down before they could question it. You shimmed around in the box grabbing a pistol and a few bullets that were loose in and placed them in your cargo pockets. As you stood to place the objects on the bed into your bag. The guy in the hat shuffled in and crouched down whispering suddenly “Um guys we have a problem.” Your heart began pounding in your chest. Something had to go wrong. You peeked your head past the guys to hear crunching of foot steps and groans and moans in the distance. Shit, walkers. But not just a few. It had to be a whole fucking horde. You froze to the spot, staring at the two men that you still don’t know and they don’t know you. You’re stuck in a little hut, cornered. Could you trust them? Could they trust you?

_What the fuck are you gonna do?_

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!   
> I hope you enjoyed this, let me know if you want more of this!  
> Stay safe and stay hydrated!


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